Academic Freedom and Intellectual Property

Faculty teaching in a Flexible Hybrid Learning Environment at Fordham retain all the rights and responsibilities that they have always had.  At Fordham, the faculty oversees the curriculum, and there is no change to this important principle. The FHLE  model itself was proposed by a faculty-driven "Academic Review Team" created by the Provost, and it considered options for the coming year and concluded that a Flexible Hybrid model will best prepare us for the uncertainty ahead.  Finally, faculty have the authority (within the health and safety constraints set by New York State) to decide the modality through which to deliver their courses for Fall 2020.

Please consult the University Statutes on Academic Freedom §4-04.01 and University Statutes Appendix I for further guidance on Academic Freedom.

Intellectual Property in the Flexible Hybrid Learning Environment

Faculty retain intellectual property rights for all materials, videos, recordings, slideshows, documents, and other asynchronous teaching materials that they create and upload to Blackboard or otherwise circulate in 2020-2021. Fordham has a University-wide policy that governs the ownership of intellectual property arising from research and teaching activities. According to this policy, the University may claim ownership of certain intellectual contributions only if the work in question is created with the “support of extraordinary [University] resources.” No resources created for the purposes of instruction in the Flexible Hybrid format during 2020-2021 will be deemed “extraordinary” by the University.